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HOW I LOST MY JOB 
AS A PREACHER 




By J. D. M. BUCKNER 
Aurora, Nebr. 



How I Lost My Job 
as a Preacher 



/. D. M. BUCKNER 

if 



This booklet may be secured from C. V. Howard, 31 
Nassau street, New York City, or J. D. M. Buckner, Au- 
rora, Nebraska, by remitting fifty cents. 

"Higher Criticism and the Christian Life" may be 
obtained by remitting twenty-five cents to the author, 
J. D. M. Buckner, Aurora, Nebraska. 



J. D. M. BUCKNER 

Born September 25, 1855. 
Licensed to Preach, 1880. 
Began Preaching in Methodist Church, 1883. 
Retired September 9, 1922, by Nebraska Methodist Conference at Omaha, 
Bishop Homer C. Stuntz, Presiding. 

Gift 
Author 




J. D. M. BUCKNER 



WHY THIS BOOKLET IS WRITTEN 



After nearly forty years of service as a minister in 
the Methodist Episcopal Church I have been retired by 
the Nebraska Conference over my protest. The reasons 
for this are here set forth. This booklet would not be 
worth my time to write or your time to read if its object 
were merely to expose a piece of individual injustice. 
Such personal injustice as was suffered, such unfairness 
as may have existed in denying me a trial, such disinge- 
nuousness as may have been practiced in the invocation 
of a retirement clause written and always employed for 
an entirely different object, were all incidents to the larger 
purpose on the part of Bishor) Stuntz and his cabinet to 
suppress liberal thinking and liberal preaching in the Meth- 
odist church in Nebraska. I feel that this latter issue is 
worth my writing about and worth your reading about 
because it raises questions of far-reaching importance to 
the future of the church in all denominations. 

For many years there has been a fight on in all de- 
nominations between what are commonly called the "new 
school" men and the "old school" men. Speaking in a 
large way this fight until very recently has been limited 
to preachers and professors. Church members have not 
been let in on it. 

The new school men do not believe in the verbal, 
literal, inspiration of the Bible; they believe in the his- 
torical interpretation in the light of the times when writ- 
ten and with consideration given to the education, char- 
acter, and vision of the different men who wrote the bible. 
Consideration is also given to the methods of copying and 
recopying, translating, and retranslating, the Bible dur- 
ing many centuries. This attitude towards the Bible and 
the study of it as sacred literature is commonly called 



6 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



"Higher Criticism". The old school men believe in the 
literal, verbal, inspiration of the Bible; that every state- 
ment in the Bible must be accepted as literally true be- 
cause inspired. 

Another disagreement is even more important. The 
new school men believe that the modern conception of re- 
ligion should be one of personal service to fellow-men. 
The old school men, while of course approving of such 
service, continue to lay primary emphasis upon personal 
reward. 

New school men accept the demonstrated conclusions 
of science in the fields of geology and biology. Old school 
men reject these conclusions in so far as they feel that 
they are contrary to the geological and biological accounts 
found in the Bible. The world was created in six days, 
because the Bible says so. Man was created as he now 
is and not developed, because the Bible says so. 

In the Baptist church after a conspicuous struggle 
reported at length in the daily press the new school men 
achieved a victory in the recent Baptist Convention at 
Indianapolis. In the Presbyterian church the struggle is 
an old one, with Union Theological Seminary (no longer 
officially connected with the church) leading the forces 
of liberalism in so far it has furnished teachers and stu- 
dents urging the modern views on these questions. In 
the Congregational church Dr. George A. Gordon for a 
generation has With tongue and pen been a notable leader 
of liberalism. In the Methodist church also there have 
been many outspoken leaders of the new school, among 
the ablest and most influential of which may be men- 
tioned the late Dr. Borden P. Browne, formerly Professor 
of Philosophy in the Boston School of Theology. On the 
other hand, Mr. L. W. Munshall for twenty-five years 
has been doing his best to hold the Methodist church in 
rigid adherence to the old dogmas and traditions. In 



AS A PREACHER 



7 



"Methodism Adrift" and "Breakers Ahead" he has given 
effective voice to the old school view. I have believed 
and preached the views advocated by the late Dr. Bowne. 
I believe that the hope of the Methodist church and of all 
churches lies in the triumph of the new and modern con- 
ception of the Bible and of the function of Christianity 
as applied to the modern problems of a torn and disord- 
ered world. I am opposed to Mr. Munhall's views, opposed 
to the teachings of his books, and believe that the tri- 
umph of the old school would turn back the clock of pro- 
gress and cripple the church forever. 

HOW IT HAPPENED 

For twenty years I have openly taught the views de- 
scribed as those of the new school men. I have believed 
that these views should be preached to my congregation 
and not limited to closeted conversations or controversies 
among preachers. I believe it is wrong to believe one 
thing and preach another. I believe it is wrong to believe 
one thing and keep discreetly silent so that the impres- 
sion is created that a man believes another thing, even 
if he does not expressly say so. I believe that ministers 
are harming the church and corroding their own char- 
acters when they privately concede the error of an as- 
sumption and yet by silence or by dodging or by the use 
of big words perpetuate what they honestly believe to be 
a deception. For those old school men who sincerely be- 
lieve the views they espouse I have respect. I think they 
are wrong and I am sure that progressive views of the 
Bible and religion will eventually triumph, as they have 
already triumphed in many places. 

At Aurora, Nebraska, as pastor of the Methodist 
church, I have preached the beliefs of the new school 



8 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



men for eleven years. In May, 1922, I sent an article 
entitled "A' Good God" to the Omaha World Herald, the 
Nebraska State Journal at Lincoln, and the Hamilton 
County Register, the Aurora Republican, and the Aurora 
Sun, at Aurora. This article was printed in all of these 
papers at or about the same time. It follows below : 



"A GOOD GOD" 

"Aurora, Neb., May 26.— To the Editor of the 
World Herald: A good many years ago I decided 
God was good. This conclusion was reached from 
two sources: The teachings of Christ and my own 
personal experience. As I studied the teachings of 
Christ and my own personal fellowship with God I 
decided my God is good. That faith has grown with 
years and I believe it more strongly today than ever 
in my life. 

"When I read in the Bible anything which re- 
flects on the goodness of God, I do not believe it. 
All scripture must be measured by the life and teach- 
ings of Christ. When I read that God killed all the 
people in the world except eight with a flood, I say 
that does not sound like my God. When I read that 
God told the Hebrews to kill all the Canaanites and 
take their property, I say my God is a missionary 
and seeks to save men, not to kill them. Why should 
I believe that story coming out of the dim past, paint- 
ing God as a cruel tyrant, any more than I should 
believe that God told the Germans to kill the Bel- 
gians and steal their property ? 

"When I was pastor at David City and we were 
studying the conquest of Canaan, a girl asked me if 



AS A PREACHER 



9 



it were right for the Hebrew soldiers to kill the 
women and children. I said 'No/ Then another 
girl said, Why did God tell them to do it then?' I 
said 'God never told them to do it. The writer was 
mistaken/ I have been asked many, many times 
why God hardened Pharaoh's heart ten times and 
then brought ten plagues upon innocent people which 
caused untold suffering. For twenty-five years I 
tried to fix it up, but always failed to satisfy the 
people or myself, until finally I had the courage to 
say, 'God never did it. My God is good/ 

"When I read that God commanded David to 
number Israel and he did it, but God was angry with 
him and killed 70,000 innocent men with a plague, 
I must defend God against that charge and answer, 
'He never did it/ 

"When I read that a few peeked into the ark 
and God killed 50,070 people of a child-race for that 
offense, I said it could not be true. 

"When I read that story about Korah, Datham 
and Abiram when they told Moses and Aaron that 
God would speak to all the people and not only un- 
to them, that God w r as angry with these men and 
opened the earth and it swallowed them up with all 
their families, sent fire and burned 250 men up who 
had offered incense to him, and then in his wrath 
smote the people with a plague that killed 14,700 of 
them before Aaron could appease God with a burn- 
ing incense, I say 'This story can not be true, for my 
God is better than Aaron, Moses or any other man/ 
I cannot believe that God killed 185,000 of the As- 
syrian army one night, that he told Joshua to hock 
the horses, that he told the Jews they could sell 
spoiled meat to the Gentiles but not to the Jews ? 



10 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



that he commanded that if a boy did not obey his 
parents he was to be killed, that if a man gathered 
sticks on the Sabbath to make a fire he was to be 
stoned to death, and that if anyone worshiped any 
other God he was to be killed. None of these things 
is like my Heavenly Father. It is no virtue for a 
man to believe these things which paint a bad God, 
even though they are found in the Bible. 

"One passage in the Bible, Thou shalt not suffer 
a witch to live/ was believed for so many centuries 
that it is estm^ted 350.000 neonle were killed be- 
cause people believed that w^s the law of God; our 
own American soil was stained with the blood of 
witches. The judee and the preacher who said We 
do not believe in witches neither do we believe that 
is God's law' were condemned as infidels and enemies 
of God. The pa ssq ere is still in the Bible, hut we do 
not believe in witches nor t^e law that killed them. 

"How did we p-et our Bible? First a rplisious 
folk produced a relicnous literature; second a relig- 
ious folk selected the B'^e from that literature. Now 
we have a reli^'ous folk th^t interprets the Bib'e. 
I must stand with Christ and his teachings and with 
my own personal experiences with God and all scrip- 
ture must be measured bv this standard. All the 
problems and questions in life which are constantly 
meeting us must be settled on the basis that God is 
good, and all other Questions adjusted to that stand- 
ard. I can only believe in a erood God. I can love, 
admire, devote mvself, worship, follow, obev only 
a good God. All theories of life must make God good 
or else I cannot accept them. 

J. D. M. BUCKNER, 
Pastor M. E. Church, Aurora, Neb. 



AS A PREACHER 



11 



This article was printed apparently in other papers, 
because I received letters from different parts of the 
country concerning it. Articles in opposition were sent 
to the above-named and printed. Shortly after the pub- 
lication of this article, I received the following letter from 
Bishop Homer C. Stuntz : 



HOMER C. STUNTZ 
Resident Bishop 
320 City National Bank Bldg. 

Omaha, Nebraska 
June 14, 1922 



Rev. J. M. Buckner, 
Aurora, Nebr. 

My dear Brother Buckner: 

I am both amazed and shocked at your letter 
entitled "A Good God" which appeared recently in 
the World-Herald. I did not happen to be in the city 
when it appeared and only within the last few days 
has the text of it been brought to my attention. 

I do not know what the Conference may de- 
cide to do about such an unprovoked and unwar- 
ranted declaration of disbelief in the word of God. 
Already it has brought you into unfavorable pub- 
licity wherever it is discussed in our own Church 



(Copy) 



Methodist 
Episcopal 
Church 



Omaha 
Area 



12 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



circles. It is certain to have the effect of making 
your appointment more difficult this next fall. 

Yours very sincerely 

(Signed) Homer C. Stuntz. 

I did not reply to this letter. 

During the winter and spring of 1922, I decided 
that it might be well after eleven years of service at 
Aurora to remove to a new charge. I had served the 
church at Aurora for a longer period than any Meth- 
odist minister had ever served a church in Nebraska 
and I felt that it might be better if I should preach the 
views I held to a new group for a while and also felt that 
Aurora should have the benefit of a new preacher. I 
called twenty of my leading members together 
and submitted my plan. Nineteen of them were opposed 
to it. Nevertheless, I continued to think 'and talk about 
it and convinced many more of my members that my plan 
was best, although some continued to oppose it. My quar- 
terly conference, composed of officials in my church, on 
August 22, 1922, unanimously voted for my return, al- 
though it was understood that if satisfactory arrange- 
ments could be made with Bishop Stuntz for me to receive 
an appointment satisfactory to myself, the move would 
be made. It was also understood and constantly express- 
ed by my leading members that if the Bishop's letter 
to me augured a disinclination on his part to give me a 
satisfactory charge, I should ask to be returned to Au- 
rora and they would demand it. I should explain for the 
benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the Methodist 
Church that the presiding bishop has arbitrary power 
over the appointment of ministers to different churches. 
This power is not often abused. Nevertheless, when 



AS A PREACHER 13 



a Methodist church wants a particular preacher to serve 
them, their wishes must take the form of a request to 
the bishop instead of an offer to the minister himself. 
The congregation has no voice in the matter if the bishop 
wishes to exercise his autocratic power. 

With the plan and understanding in mind as out- 
lined, I announced that I would preach my farewell ser- 
mon on September 3rd, 1922, that being the last Sunday 
before the annual conference of Methodist preachers 
at Omaha. I had stenographic notes taken of my ser- 
mon, not with a view to current publicity, but because 
I desired to preserve my last words in a church where I 
had enjoyed the longest and most successful pastorate 
of my forty years career as a minister. 

A lawyer at Aurora named F. E. Edgerton, who is a 
friend of mine though not a member of my church, was 
present at my farewell sermon. He made a short synop- 
sis of it and sent it to the Omaha and Lincoln papers. 
This was without my knowledge, although I would have 
had no objections to it if I had known it. In the mean- 
time I had gone to the conference at Omaha where re- 
porters sought me out, handed me Mr. Edgerton's syn- 
opsis of my sermon, and asked me if it was correct. I 
stated that while it was very brief and while some state- 
ments did not include the elaboration or qualification 
given in the complete sermon, yet it could be fairly said 
to be an accurate short synopsis of my sermon and my 
views. The reporters had with them a photographer 
and asked me to pose for a picture which I refused to do. 
Apparently they snapped me when I was not looking, 
because the next day there appeared in the Omaha pap- 
ers a picture of myself while talking to a reporter. I wish 
to make clear that while I knew nothing about Mr. Edg- 
erton's sending the report to the papers, I had no ob- 



14 HOW I LOST MY JOB 



jection at any time to anyone's knowing what I believed, 
whether the conference was in session or not in session. 

A synopsis of my farewell sermon, an even briefer 
account of which was published as described above, here 
follows : 



FAREWELL SERMON 

"I take two passages for my texts: 'And ye 
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you 
free' — 'Wherefore, Oh King Agrippa, I was not dis- 
obedient unto the heavenly vision'. 

"Jesus said to his followers that they should 
seek the truth and the truth would make them free. 
The implication is that the great purpose of man 
is to seek truth. 

"The other text was the testimony of the Apostle 
Paul when on trial, when he was persecuting the 
Christians he was a pharisee, and thought he should 
destroy the followers of Jesus, and said he was con- 
scientious in this work, but when he was on the road 
to Damascus God showed him that he was wrong and 
the Christians were right. He testified as a prisoner 
that he had obeyed the truth which God had revealed 
to him. 

These two texts teach: First, the best thing to 
believe is the truth; Second, We ought to have a 
heart that will respond to God and say, 'Let in the 
light and I will walk in it ; reveal the truth and I will 
obey it/ 

"I desire to speak on the difference between an i 
old school Christian and a new school Christian. 
These terms are colloquial. The two groups are ex- 



AS A PREACHER 



15 



pressed by various terms. For twenty years I have 
been a new school Christian and before that I was 
and old school Christian, so I should speak with some 
authority. 

"A few years ago four young men who had 
graduated from Union Theological Seminary were to 
be ordained by the New York Presbytery and were 
to go as missionaries. In their examination they 
were asked if they believed in the virgin birth of 
Jesus and they answered *We will not affirm neither 
will we deny'. Some of the ministers wanted them 
to answer 'yes' or 'no' but they would not do it. The 
Presbytery ordained them and they went as mission- 
aries. This brought trouble between the New York 
Presbvtery and the general church, so the General 
Assembly passed a resolution requiring all graduates 
of Union Theological Seminary to take a certain 
amount of work in an orthodox Presbyterian school 
before thev are ordained. 

"A few years ago the Methodist Episcopal 
church appointed a commission to select a course 
of studv for our ministers. On that commission were 
some of the leading educators of our church with 
two Bishops, and they selected a good course of study 
but some folks raise the cry "Heresy" and got two 
or three conferences to enter a protest and asked 
that certain books be taken out and the commission 
discontinued. 

"Last June The Northern Baptists held their 
convention in Indianapolis where two thousand 
delegates assembled in the interest of the church 
representing thirty-seven states. The old school 
calling themselves "Fundamentalists" sought to 
control the convention. J. C. Massee, of Boston, 



16 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



was the chairman of the Fundamentalists and took 
three years to work up their program. They want- 
ed to elect all the officers and Boards from the Fun- 
damentalists, and to adopt a creed which all mini- 
sters, teachers and missionaries would have to 
subscribe. Mr. Massee sent out a pastoral letter to 
all pastors to send "independent" delegates to the 
convention. He then arranged a program one day 
before the convention opened with five addresses 
all from Fundamentalists. The Fundamentalists 
controlled only three states out of thirty-seven and 
the creed was lost by a two to one vote. The pro- 
gressives organized for the fight and controlled the 
convention. W. H. Faunce, President of Brown Uni- 
versity, said that the Baptist church had been saved 
to the intelligent, educated, people of the world. The 
Baptists have always boasted that they have no 
creed, but each man must answer to God for his 
faith and duty, and yet here was a great organized 
movement to prevent freedom of expression. 

"The question is, was it better for Christianity 
and the Kingdom of God for the progressives to 
win out or for the Fundamentalists? I think the 
progressives stand for more truth and righteous- 
ness than the Fundamentalists, so I vote for the 
progressives. I am referring to these incidents to 
show that the fight is on in all the churches between 
the new school and the old school. 

I want to discuss for a little while the differ- 
ence between a new school Christian and an old 
school Christian, for there are Christians in both 
groups. 

"There are two theories about how we got our 
Bible. The old school believes that God dictated the 



AS A PREACHER 



Bible to men and they wrote just what he said, 
whether they understood it or not. They believe 
the Bible is the word of God and is infallible. They 
assume that there w T ere no mistakes made by tran- 
scribers who for centuries produced all the new 
Bibles and also no mistakes made in translation, 
so that we have the exact words of God spoken to 
the writers. They say, 'You must believe it all or 
none/ 

"The new school accepts a different theory of 
the Bible: First a religious folk produced a re- 
ligious literature; then a religious folk selected our 
Bible from that literature ; now a religious folk inter- 
prets the Bible. The new school believes that inspi- 
ration is measured by intelligence, faith, devotion; 
that as these men sought God and lived in fellow- 
ship with Him their minds were illuminated as ours 
are now, but not to the degree of infallibility. There- 
fore, every book of the Bible is valued by its con- 
tents and must be measured by the life and teach- 
ings of Christ. 

"We ask three questions about every passage of 
Scripture: Who wrote it? When was it written? 
Why was it written? You can see that these two 
theories differ very much. The Bible is a great 
book; it contains great truths, inspiration, history, 
fables, legends, poetry, and many things which are 
not to be taken literally. 

"You remember I wrote an article a few months 
ago on "A Good God". You all want a good God, you 
believe in a good God, but some of the things which 
the Old Testament says God did are pretty bad, and 
if a citizen of Aurora should do them we would be 



18 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



shocked. I am compelled to believe either that God 
was once bad or that the record is wrong. 

"The history of the Bible is not very accurate, 
the ethics are defective, the moral standards not 
equal to ours. As the ethics of the Hebrews devel- 
oped, their ideas and institutions improved. 

"We find the science of the Bible is not in har- 
mony with the discoveries of science today. The 
men who wrote the Bible thought the world flat and 
the sky solid. 

"I have asked my men's class if God could feed 
the starving children of China ; some said 'yes, God 
can do anything/ I said 'What would you think of 
a father in Aurora who would let his children starve 
to death when he could feed them V God must have 
men to feed the starving, to build hospitals, church- 
es, and to save the world. God depends upon us. 

"I believe that Jesus came to live and teach men 
about the Father, to reveal the Father and make 
known His will and that the Jews killed him because 
they hated him. 

"The old school believes that Jesus came to die 
as a sacrifice in order to soften the heart of God and 
make Him willing to save man. I believe that sav- 
iorhood is as strong in the Father as in the Son and 
that God sent His Son because He loved man. 

"The old school believes salvation to be ready- 
made and to be secured by believing certain things 
and performing certain ceremonies; that it takes 
place in the courts of heaven. I believe salvation is 
progressive and takes place in man. By cooperating 
with God he is able to overcome sin and to practice 
virtue. It is the indwelling Christ that saves through 



AS A PREACHER 



19 



fellowship. A man is saved in the degree to which 
he is good. No ritual or ceremony is valuable un- 
less it improves one's life. 

"A few months ago when I had forty men in 
my class, I asked them this question: Two men 
lived to be sixty years old ; one was a good man ; 
honest, sober, virtuous, benevolent, kind, a good hus- 
band, a good citizen, a good father, but not a member 
of the church and had never confesed Christ as his 
savior. The other man was bad; a thief, a liar, a 
drunkard, a libertine, a wicked man, a bad citizen, 
but on his death-bed three hours before he died he 
called upon God to have mercy upon him as a sinner, 
confessed Christ, and was baptised and received into 
the church. How many think the good man has 
the better chance in the next world?' Thirty-seven 
voted for him and three for the bad man. Of course, 
you instantly think of the thief on the cross. Three 
men give us that history: Matthew and Mark say 
that both thieves railed at Jesus, but Luke says that 
one prayed. Shall I believe Luke on the one hand or 
Matthew and Mark on the other? Except for Luke's 
contradicted account, Jesus never touched on this 
great subject during his ministry. Do you think 
Jesus would have deferred the announcement of so 
great a principle which affects vitally life and destiny 
to the last moment of His life and then declared to 
a heathen that he could substitute the last hour of 
his life for a lifetime of wickedness in which he had 
lived and moulded his destiny. 

"You remember that man in the East who in- 
vited his wife to take an automobile ride, drove to 
a lonely spot, stopped the car and shot his wife to 
death, but before he was hanged he confessed Christ 



20 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



and fixed it up with God so that he went direct to 
heaven from the gallows. Such faith is a burlesque 
on Christianity and drives many good people from 
the church. I would go and pray for a dying man 
and would baptize him and receive him into the 
church but I would not tell him or others that he had 
as good a chance in the next world as a good man. 
Character determines destiny. 

"I want to say that creeds are a good thing if 
used for stepping-stones but a curse if used to bar 
progress. 

"If you ever attended a revival the evangelist ap- 
pealed to the emotions and urged his hearers to get 
religion so they would be saved from hell and go to 
heaven when they died. That is an appeal to the 
selfishness of people and the man who responds to 
that motive will never get very high. Billy Sunday 
uses both appeals. After emphasizing the heaven 
and hell appeal, he says, 'If you young men standing 
back there have any red blood in your veins and will 
fight oppression and for righteousness, come down 
here and give me your hand/ That is the new ap- 
peal of the new school : 'Get religion to be useful and 
to render service to your fellow-men.' 

"In closing I want to say that I have not been 
disobedient unto the heavenly vision. Forty-two 
years ago when I stood face to face with God in set- 
tling the question of preaching, I promised God if He 
would let in the light I would walk in it ; if He would 
reveal the truth I would obey it. The thing I have 
always wanted to know was the will of God and I 
have been ready to do it at any cost. I have lived 
up to that pledge to this day. None of you has 
ever asked me a question about my faith that I did 



AS A PREACHER 



21 



not answer. I have played fair and been honest in 
my preaching and teaching. 

"I have given Aurora eleven years of the best 
of my life and have greatly enjoyed my pastorate 
here. Throughout I have received your zealous co- 
operation. I have done my best for the church, the 
town, the county. God bless you!" 

On the night of the day that a brief report of the 
above sermon appeared in the Omaha papers, I was 
called before Bishop Stuntz and his cabinet, consisting 
of the following superintendents: Dr. J. H. Clements, 
Dr. M. E. Gilbert, Dr. E. M. Furman, Dr. J. G. Shick, Dr. 
E. T. George, Dr. J. R. Gettys, Dr. J. W. Kilpatrick, 
Dr. J. W. Embree. They had copies of the Om^ha papers 
before them. Then Bishop Stuntz asked me if the report 
of my sermon was a correct report. I replied that in 
the main it was correct. I stated the circumstances as 
narrated above, but did not state that I regretted the 
publication, because I did not. Bishop Stuntz stated 
that the publication of my article entitled "A Good God" 
followed by this newspaper report of my sermon just 
as the conference was opening, looked like a slan in the 
face, an open defiance, and as if I were telling him and 
the conference 'Do your worst.' Dr. Gettys said in sub- 
stance that I ought to withdraw from the church; that 
I did not believe in the doctrines of the church and was 
doing great harm; that he would withdraw from the 
church if he were in my position and believed as I did. 

I may pause here long enough to say that several 
years ago Dr. Gettys told me that his views and my 
views were not two inches apart, but that there was this 
difference between us : that whereas I talked about it all 
the time, he talked about it none of the time. 



22 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



I mention this not as a personal matter, but only 
to illustrate what I consider the very worst feature of the 
struggle going on in all of the churches, namely, the con- 
spiracy of silence, by which many educated and well-read 
ministers consider it impolitic to preach or write their 
real views. There can be no progress where such a mis- 
taken policy prevails. 

I stated to the Bishop and his cabinet that my views 
were not out of harmony with the Methodist church and 
that if anyone thought they were, I was entitled to a 
trial. Dr. Furman said, in substance: "We have not had 
a heresy trial in the Methodist church for fifteen years 
and we do not want one." Bishop Stuntz said, in sub- 
stance : "Heaven knows, we do not want a heresy trial. The 
papers and magazines would give great publicity to it and 
it would be much easier for Brother Buckner simply to 
retire voluntarily, as he can do at his age." Dr. Furman 
stated, in substance, that if I had not published my article 
"A Good God", and if the report of my sermon had not 
followed, they could give me an appointment, but that I 
had been very indiscreet. I replied to him, "You would 
not want me to cover things up just to get an appointment 
would you ?" He made no reply. 

I stated, among other things, that leading pastors, 
writers, and professors of our church believed just as I did 
because I had learned all my views from them as well as 
writers of other denominations. To support this I gave 
the bishop and his cabinet the names of prominent Meth- 
odists, living and dead, who had written and spoken the 
very things for which I was being criticised. These names 
will be found elsewhere in this booklet. The only reply 
to my contention in this respect was that of Bishop Stuntz 
who said to his cabinet, in substance: "Brother Buck- 
ner is a good student. I have been in his study. He has 



AS A PREACHER 



23 



a fine library." The discussion lasted an hour and a half. 
Nothing was discussed except my published views on the 
Bible and theology and the repeated urging that I vol- 
untarily retire. One statement in the published account 
of my sermon was to the effect that I did not believe that 
God sent two she-bears to devour forty-two playful chil- 
dren, because they shouted "Bald head" at Elisha. I had 
said in my sermon that I preferred to take the words of 
Jesus, "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid 
them not, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." I asked 
Bishop Stuntz directly if he believed the story about Eli- 
sha. He did not answer. 

I argued with the cabinet throughout that I should 
not be asked to retire merely because of differences be- 
tween us. I told the Bishop that I had been preaching a- 
bout as long as he had and that the proper way to handle 
the situation was to permit the new school men in the 
church and the old school men in the church to both have 
their say. I repeated to him what he had said to the con- 
ference in another connection that although you differed 
from a man you should keep on loving him. I stated that 
without freedom of expression there could be no progress 
in any institution. 

I narrated to them a personal experience as follows : 
When I was a young Methodist preacher in my twenties 
I attended a Republican county convention and offered a 
dry plank. A saloonkeeper got up and said that if I did 
not agree with the Republican party, I ought to get out 
of it. I told him that neither he nor I owned the Repu- 
blican party and that the only fair thing was for us both 
to stay in the party and each continue to offer his plank 
and that perhaps at some future time a majority of the 
party would adopt a dry plank ; that the Republican party 
was a wet party or a dry party in accordance with the 



24 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



wishes of a majority of the party. This illustration the 
bishop and his cabinet said did not apply. 

I then gave another illustration : I told them of a na- 
tive of India who was lecturing in my pulpit many years 
ago, and said that the reason why this country was far 
ahead of India was because the priests of India were com- 
pelled to preach word for word the language of their an- 
cestors whereas in this country the clergy were permitted 
freedom of thought and freedom of speech. No comment 
was mde upon this illustraton. 

As I left I said: "I hav^ three things to say — I have 
no thought of withdrawing from the Methodist church; 
I will not retire ; I want an appointment." 

The next morning the secretary of the cabinet read 
to the conference a resolution of the bishop and cabinet 
that I be referred to the committee on conference rela- 
tions for retirement. The text of this resolution is not 
available at the moment but I have stated it in substance. 
I have never heard of a bishop and cabinet making such 
a recommendation. I had not before supposed that a man 
could be retired against his will without charges made 
against him. As I was quickly to learn, however, upon 
looking the matter up, a .nan may be retired without 
his consent by a vote of the conference. I have not as 
yet had any case called to my attention where this law 
was invoked under circumstances similar to these. (For 
the benefit of non-Methodists I should have before ex- 
pi ained that the conference is composed solely of min- 
isters.) 

To the committee on conference relations therefore 
went the recommendation of the bishop and his cabinet. 
The normal function of this committee is to pass upon 
applications for retirement which preachers make in reg- 
ular course for various reasons. I appeared twice before 



AS A PREACHER 



this committee, each time for nearly an hour, and was 
closely questioned upon my views on the Bible and theol- 
ogy. Nothing else was discussed. At no time was any men- 
tion made of any of the normal reasons for retirement 
such as ill-health, age, etc. No one pretended that any 
such reason existed. I repeated my demand for a trial. 
I repeated my assertion that my views were in harmony 
with the leaders of the church as could be established 
upon a trial. Most of the committee urged me to retire 
voluntarily to save my reputation. I said that whenever 
I had read of a preacher resigning or retiring when 
charges were in the air I always thought he was both 
guilty and a coward. The chairman said he agreed with 
me but that his committee had no authority to recom- 
mend a trial as the sole thing referred to them was the 
recommendation of the bishop and cabinet for retirement. 
One of the members severely criticized my publication 
of a letter of mine in which I took a position opposed 
to that of Mr. Bryan on the evolution issue. He said 
I had no business to go outside of my pulpit and write 
a letter for publication. He contended that Mr. Bryan 
in fighting evolution was defending the Bible against at- 
tack and that it was the duty of all ministers to support 
him. 

While the committee on conference relations was still 
considering my case, my church at Aurora had been ap- 
prised of the progress of events and the pulpit committee 
of the church at Aurora called Bishop Stuntz on the tel- 
ephone to request my return -to Aurora. I am informed 
by a member of the pulpit committee that after a few 
words on the telephone Bishop Stuntz stated that he was 
very busy, could not talk with them on the telephone, 
and that they should put what they had to say in a tel- 
egram. They sent the following telegram, which was re- 



26 



HOW I LOP r _ MY JOB 



ceived by the bishop before any action had been taken 
by the commttee or by the conference : 

CONFIRMATION 
THE WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH COMPANY 

Aurora, Neb., 9/8 1922 

Bishop Homer C. Stuntz, 
Sanford Hotel, 
c/o Methodist Conference, 
Omaha, Nebraska. 

Aurora Church desires return of J. D. M. Buckner. 
S. B. Otto A. E. Siekmann 

C. S. Brown S. C. Stephenson 

Glenn Anawalt Pulpit Comm. 

On the day after this telegram was sent and received 
by the bishop the committee on conference relations re- 
ported and recommended my retirement. I addressed the 
conference briefly both before any after the report came 
in. I recounted in a few words my pastorate at Aurora; 
how the salary had been increased during my time there 
from $1200 to $2500 besides the parsonage; how the be- 
nevolences contributed for the benefit of the church so- 
cieties and funds at large had grown from $300 to $3000 
for three consecutive years ; that I was a man of one job ; 
that my pulpit committee had wired the bishop the day 
before asking for my return and that the bishop had re- 
ceived this wire : that if nearly forty years faithful serv- 
ice in the Methodist church amounted to anything I hoped 
they would not retire me in the prime of life. I said 
nothing about theology or the Bible. All understood the 
real reason for the proposed action. No one else sooke 
either for or against the report. The recommendation 
to retire was carried. This was a foregone conclusion 



AS A PREACHER 



27 



from the beginning, since the recommendation for re- 
tirement had originated with Bishop Stuntz and his cab- 
inet. 

When this news reached Aurora the official board met 
and adopted resolutions. I was still at Omaha and had 
no communication with any member of my church. My 
first knowledge of this action came from an Omaha paper 
which on September 12 contained the following news 
article : 

"Special Dispatch to the World- Herald. 

Aurora, Neb., Sept. 11. — Resolutions denouncing 
the action of the conference at Omaha in retiring 
the Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, pastor of the Methodist 
church here, from the ministry, were passed at a 
meeting of the official board of the church this morn- 
ing. 

The resolutions are signed by the following 
board members: S. B. Otto, E. W. White, G. Ana- 
wialt, Ralph Otto, S. C. Stephenson, D. W. Call, Chas. 
E. Peterson, R. Peterson, H. E. Toof, G. E. Funk, 
H. R. Worthington, C. W. Wood, J. W. Haworth, H. 
H. Leymaster, R. M. Cooper, C. S. Brown, A. E. Siek- 
mann, C. R. Scovill and B. W. Woodford. 

The resolutions read : 

"Whereas, the Omaha conference of the Meth- 
odist church has seen fit to retire from the minis- 
try the Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, who for eleven years 
has been a faithful servant of God and of the 
church here in Aurora, Neb., and 

Whereas, this action of the conference re- 
moves from the Methodist ministry of Nebraska 
one of the strongest, ablest, most earnest and sin- 
cere preachers of the church, and 



28 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



Whereas, the Rev. J. D. M. Buckner has for 
thirty-eight years served as a minister of the 
Methodist church and with great heart has min- 
istered to the suffering and privations of the poor 
and distressed and has demonstrated in the eleven 
years of his service in Aurora that he is a great- 
hearted, broad-minded Christian gentleman and 
scholar, Be It 

Resolved, by the official board of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal church of Aurora, Neb., that we 
unqualifiedly denounce the action of the conference 
at Omaha in retiring Dr. Buckner ; And Be It Fur- 
ther 

Resolved, That we hereby announce our loy- 
alty and the loyalty of this church to Dr. Buckner, 
and pledge him the support of this church in any 
struggle that he may make to re-establish him- 
self as a minister of God in the Methodist church ; 
Be It Further 

Resolved, That we insist that the conference 
reconsider its action and place Dr. Buckner again 
on the roll of the ministry and that it again assign 
him to a responsible charge in this conference." 

Says "It's a Dirty Shame" 

"The congregation was stunned here by the 
action of the conference relative to the Rev. Mr. 
Buckner's retirement and general indignation was 
expressed. While a few members did not approve 
his alleged liberal belief of the Bible, they loved him 
for his big-heartedness and feel that he has been 
unjustly deprived of his right to preach in the 
church. 



AS A PREACHER 



29 



"The Rev. Mr. Buckner for several years has 
conducted a Sunday school class for men, which was 
an open forum for religious, political and social ques- 
tions and had a regular membership of fifty men. 
The class met Sunday and spent the entire hour de- 
nouncing the conference's action. 

"It is a dirty shame," declared one prominent 
member. "They treated Buckner like a dog. I'll not 
be party for such a thing. They can't send another 
man here after such a dismissal of Buckner and ex- 
pect us to grin and say nothing and stay in the church 
I look for this Sunday school class to be dissolved 
within a month after the new pastor takes charge." 

"Threaten To Leave Church" 

"Some members asked the official board to em- 
ploy the Rev. Mr. Buckner in spite of the action of 
the conference, while others say they are through 
with the church. Among these are some of the 
heaviest contributors. 

"Messages urging Buckner to make a fight for 
his rights and expressing support have been sent him 
by many members. 

"A reception is planned for the Rev. Mr. Buckner 
and his wife upon their return from the Omaha con- 
ference." 

I wired the official board as follows, as reported in 
the press : 

"Omaha, Neb., Sep. 12. 

"Glen Anawalt, 

Secretary Official Board Methodist Church, 
Aurora, Neb. 

"Mrs. Buckner and I deeply appreciate and are 
greatly moved by the resolutions adopted by you 



30 HOW I LOST MY JOB 

yesterday. I urge you not to permit the piece of 
Prussianism by which I have been denied a pulpit in 
the Methodist church without trial to cause you to 
lose sight of the larger issues involved. While my 
fate naturally is of large personal concern to me it 
is of no particular consequence to the great cause of 
progressive Christianity and liberal interpretation of 
the Bible. That cause can best be served by your 
continuing the fight for freedom of speech and free- 
dom of thought inside the Methodist church. 

"In all denominations the struggle is on and the 
modern school is making rapid headway. Do not be 
discouraged and do not give up the fight. To strangle 
intellectual conviction for the sake of so-called ortho- 
doxy is a delusion and snare. Many of our own pas- 
tors privately concede what they publicly denounce. 
That way lies ruin. 

"I am delighted that Goman has been assigned 
to you. He is a splendid young man and many years 
ago when I was district superintendent he was one 
of my boys. Be as loyal and true to him as you have 
been to me. Home the end of the week. 

J. D. M. BUCKNER." 

n. 

I was retired Saturday forenoon. I went to Wood- 
bine, Iowa, to fill an engagement in the Methodist pulpit 
there on Sunday morning, made a month earlier. Omaha 
papers carried the following account of the sermon: 

"The Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, 67, of Aurora, a 
Methodist Episcopal minister for forty years, who 
was retired on a pension Saturday by the Methodist 
conference cabinet because of "progressive" views 
on the interpretation of the Bible held by him, oc- 




AS A PREACHER 



31 



cupied the pulpit at the Methodist Episcopal Church 
of Woodbine, la., Sunday at the request of the pas- 
tor there. 

"Taking as his subject God's query to Moses, 
'What is in Thy Hand?' the pastor spoke briefly, 
I explaining to his congregation how best to bring God 
to earth and touching briefly on the new theories 
for which he has been criticised. He made no allu- 
sion to the action of the conference cabinet in retir- 
ing him. 

"In God's query to Moses which Moses answered 
by saying, 'My rod* there is a story, an inspiration 
and a task. Moses has but a rod with which to do 
his Father's bidding. He used that," declared the 
Rev. Mr. Buckner. 

"God wants that man should use himself and all 
that belongs to him for service. He should dedicate 
his culture, his health and his money for service, the 
bettering of lives of others. 

"There are three things in the task to bring God 
down to earth in spirit and in teaching. We must 
lift the race up, force truth to the top and bring 
heaven into men. 

"The church is not to transport men to heaven ; 
it is to transform them. We should be more con- 
cerned with getting heaven into men than in getting 
men into heaven. ..We should strive to get hell out 
of men rather than to keep men out of hell. 

"This last statement is in accordance with the 
new theory of religion," added the pastor. 
To reporters who sought to interview me and asked 
many questions I replied that their queries could best be 
answered by three stattnents which I would prepare on 



32 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



successive days on "How I Feel," "My Creed," and "What 
I am Going to Do." These statements received wide pub- 
licity and may be of interest here. I include them as they 
appeared in the press. 

"HOW I FEEL" 

"I have been retired by the Methodist confer- 
ence because of the doctrines in which I believe and 
which I have preached for fifteen years, the last 
eleven of which were served at Aurora, Nebraska. 
I should greatly have preferred a trial with formal 
charges, with opportunity to make my defense and 
before a jury of the conference charged with the re- 
sponsibility of going into all the facts and rendering 
a verdict. 

"I made a request for a trial to the committee on 
conference relations which recommended my retire- 
ment, stating to them that I could not accept their 
suggestion that I retire voluntarily because when- 
ever I read of a preacher resigning or retiring where 
there are charges in the air, I always thought he 
was both guilty and a coward. 

"I stated that in common justice I should be 
tried if my doctrines were believed by anyone to be 
out of harmony with the church and that I believed 
I could establish that my views were in complete 
harmony with the views now held by the leaders of 
our church. 

"I made this same statement in substance to 
Bishop Stuntz and his cabinet when they suggested 
that they did not want a heresy trial in this confer- 
ence with its attendant publicity and that this could 
he avoided if I would retire voluntarily. This I re- 



AS A PREACHER 



33 



fused to do, believing that every man is entitled to 
a trial, a hearing, an opportunity to defend himself 
and to abide by the verdict of a jury. Any other 
course is un-American. 

"I am just as loyal and devoted to Christ and 
his kingdom and the great Methodist church and the 
work in which she is engaged as I was before my 
enforced retirement. It is unfair to judge a great 
church by the action of a small group. I am grieved 
to see by a dispatch in the press that members of 
my church are indignant at the action of the confer- 
ence and that many of them may withdraw from the 
.church. I shall advise them to remain loyal and to 
continue their adherence to the church. 

"Bishop Stuntz in admitting some young men 
to the conference said 'When you do not believe the 
doctrines of the Methodist church you will get out, 
won't you, and not remain in and eat Methodist bread 
while preaching doctrines contrary to the church/ 
While many leaders of our church and many pro- 
fessors in our Methodist schools preach and teach ex- 
actly the same doctrines which I do, yet the object 
of this question was not lost on anyone who heard it. 
I may add in this connection that many members of 
my church at Aurora have joined the church, accord- 
ing to their own statements, wholly because of my 
progressive preaching. One of these men contributes 
$1,000 a year to the church and two others $500 
each, and others smaller amounts, and one gave $10 ? - 
000 to the Wesleyan endowment fund at my request, 
so that at least one Methodist pastor and one Metho- 
dist bishop have been permitted to eat Methodist 
bread furnished by progressive Methodists who 
joined the church because of progressive preaching/' 



34 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



On the day following the publication of the above the 
papers carried 

MY CREED" 
What I Believe 

"I believe in a personal God, who is doing His 
best with man, bringing light, comfort, and strength 
to every man in proportion to his surrender, faith 
and devotion. I believe in the personality of Jesus 
Christ and the Holy Spirit through whom men are 
saved. 

"I believe that conversion and salification are 
only the beginning and not the end of a religious life. 

"I believe that salvation is not something com- 
pleted in the courts of Heaven and handed to man 
readymade, but is rather a process wrought out in 
the lives of men through Jesus Christ, who came to 
manifest the Father and to reveal his will to man. 

"I believe that faith, repentance, and prayer are 
to affect man and not God. God is always willing to 
bless men. He does not have to be persuaded. 

"Ritual and ceremony are only valuable as they 
improve the lives of men. Creeds are a blessing if 
used as stepping stones but a curse if employed to 
bar progress. 

"God is seeking to make men good. Character 
determines destiny. 

What I Do Not Believe 

"I do not believe that all the Bible is equally in- 
spired. Inspiration is measured by the intelligence 
as well as by the faith and love of the writer. No 
revelation is made until it is understood. 



AS A PREACHER 



85 



"I do not believe that God stopped His revela- 
tions when the Bible was completed. He is still re- 
vealing himself in the inner consciousness of men. 

"I do not believe that some of the stories in the 
Old Testament reveal the will and character of God. 
I believe rather that they only reflect the conception 
of God held by the writers of that time. I give only 
a few illustrations : 

"I do not believe that God told the Hebrews to 
kill the Canaanites, men, women and innocent chil- 
dren, and to confiscate their property. 

"I do not believe that God told David to number 
Israel and that when he did it God became angry 
with David and sent a plague and killed 70,000 un- 
offending men. 

"I do not believe that because a few curious men 
peeked into the ark God became angry and killed 
50,070 innocent men. 

"I do not believe that God caused two she-bears 
to devour forty-two playful children because they 
shouted "Bald Head!" at Elisha. 

"The ethics and moral standards of the Old Test- 
ament must be measured by the life and teachings of 
Jesus Christ." 

On the following day the press printed my final state- 
ment on 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



"WHAT I AM GOING TO DO" 

"More often than any other question I am asked 
what I am going to do. So far as making a living is 
concerned I do not yet know. I have not hunted a 
job for forty years and therefore my personal tech- 
nique for job-hunting is undeveloped. 

"Aside from the bread and butter job, my chief 
work will be to continue to preach and teach the 
views of what is now called the new school of re- 
ligious thought. There is nothing new about it be- 
cause the fight for modern views has been going on 
for a long time. Over twenty years ago Professor 
Mitchell of the Boston School of Theology of the 
Methodist church was chloroformed by the Metho- 
dist bishops but only after a substantial vote in his 
favor. He found an opportunity for freedom of 
teaching modern views in another school. Since then 
many of our Methodist professors have taught views 
and held their jobs from which they would have been 
ejected a few years earlier. 

"While the struggle between reactionaries and 
progressives concerning the Bible and the mission 
of the modern church in a modern world is go- 
ing on in a number of denominations, the most con- 
spicuous fight of recent years is that just concluded 
in the Baptist church. For three years the 'Funda- 
mentalists' as the standpatters called themselves pre- 
pared for the struggle. Last June in the most nota- 
ble religious convention of many years the progres- 
sive Baptists won out, and in the words of W. H. 
Faunce, president of Brown University, they "saved 
the Baptist church for educated young men." 



AS A PREACHER 



37 



"Until twenty years ago I was a stand-patter 
and believed in the verbal inspiration of the Bible 
and that every word in it was literally true. My own 
evolution of thought has been due to association with 
and teachings of prominent officials, pastors, pro- 
fessors, and writers of the Methodist church and 
other denominations. With many of these men I 
have talked. I have read the books of many others. 
In the Methodist church among these I mention the 
late Bishop Vincent, Professor Boren P. Bowne, John 
T. McFarland, editor of Sunday School literature, 
Chancellor D. W. C. Huntington, and Professor Mil- 
ton S. Terry. Among the living are Professor Bron- 
son, Professor Franklin H. Rail, Professor W. J. 
Davidson, Professor Albert C. Knudson, Dr. Beebe, 
Professor Brightman, Dr. David G. Downey, Book 
Editor of the church. Twelve years ago I wrote a 
little pamphlet expressing my views called "Higher 
Criticism and the Christian Life 5 ' which contained 
the same statements for which I have just been re- 
tired by the Nebraska conference. I read this pam- 
phlet to Bishop Edward Hughes and Dr. Downey who 
approved it and Dr. Downey offered to authorize the 
publication of the pamphlet as regular Methodist 
literature. I did not feel that it was in final shape 
for permanent publication at the time. I am certain 
that our Methodist schools almost without exception 
take the position of the new and modern view of the 
Bible and the function of religion in twentieth cen- 
tury life. 

"The action of the Nebraska conference in seek- 
ing quietly to retire me without the formality and 
showdown of a trial is not typical of Methodism. It 



38 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



shows only an eddying backwater in the onrushing 
stream of Christian thought in the Methodist church. 

"The most unfortunate thing in the general con- 
troversy over the country is that many of the stand- 
patters privately concede the truth of the views 
which they oppose or concerning which they keep the 
silence of discretion. 

"A member of Bishop* Stuntz' cabinet which 
recommended my retirement without trial said to me 
within recent years, 'I believe just what you do but 
there is this difference: You talk about it all the 
time and I say nothing about it.' I have had pastors 
and teachers say to me, 'We all believe as you do, as 
every modern educated man must, but we do not be- 
lieve it is best for the church or the common folk 
to say anything about it.' To all of which I have re- 
plied and now reply: What is the use of digging 
for gold except to enrich the world? What is the 
use of climbing for vision unless you are to tell what 
you see ? 

"Therefore by every possible means I intend to 
preach progressive Christianity for the rest of my 
life. That is what I am going to do." 

I am receiving daily many letters from all parts of 
the country approving the views of the Bible and religion 
as expressed by the new school men and approving my 
refusal to retire upon request, although knowing what 
the result of my refusal would be. My attention is called 
from time to time to editorial comments upon the subject. 
As a matter of interest I have collected in an appendix to 
this booklet a few of these personal and editorial expres- 
sions. It would be impossible to include any considerable 
number. 



AS A PREACHER 



39 



As I write, it is just two weeks since I was retired. 
I have tried to keep my head straight and my heart right. 
From the fortnight's perspective there are four things 
which paragraph themselves in my mind : 

First: The least important, and one which I have tried 
to rise above, is the sense of humiliation that after nearly 
forty years of service I was retired, in vigorous health, 
against my will, and in the face of a telegraphic request 
from a congregation which I had served for eleven years 
that I be returned to them. This request of the rank and 
file as well as my demand for a trial, with opportunity to 
defend myself, were of no avail against the quiet domina- 
tion of church officials, conceived and executed the plan 
for my elimination, without- charges, defense, judge, jury 
or counsel, all of which are provided for in our church. 
I was retired by the cenvenient use of a provision in our 
law designed for a wholly different purpose. I am con- 
firmed in this because within forty-eight hours a high 
official of our church has stated to me that the use of the 
retirement clause in my case to cloak a heresy charge was 
an abuse of the law and unfair. Fortunately there can 
be no dispute on this issue, since it was frankly admitted, 
both by the bishop and his cabinet and by the conference 
relations committee, that the only occasion for my re- 
tirement was my views and their publication. 

Second: Far harder to bear is the suffering of my 
wife, who for forty years has worked unceasingly by my 
side in every field of church work. Even the bearing and 
rearing of children and her exacting household duties did 
not encroach upon her tireless efforts in religious activi- 
ties. Feminine tact has ever smoothed over masculine 
blunders. Such success as I may have attained as a 
pastor would have been impossible without her inspira- 
tion and help. To see her so sharply cut off from the 



40 



HOW I LOST MY JOB 



work she loves, to see her sacrificing service brought to 
so abrupt and humiliating an end, to witness her heart- 
broken efforts to pick up the threads of life and duty in 
a setting other than a Methodist parsonage, cause me to 
pray for sweetness of spirit and for a clear vision of those 
larger issues involved here, which far transcend in im- 
portance the mere personal sense of injustice on the part 
of a country preacher or the personal tragedy of his wife's 
forty years of religious work brought to so sad a close. 

Third: Taking up these larger issues — Serious so- 
cial and religious consequences flow from the intimidation 
and terrorism shown in the foregoing narrative. Men 
will be afraid to speak. I know personally many men in 
the Nebraska conference who think as I do. I assume 
that they were afraid to rise and express their views. 
Many of them are young men with wives and children to 
support. The action of the conference is a notice served 
upon its members that no difference of views will be tol- 
erated. This embargo upon freedom of thought and free- 
dom of speech thrusts back progress. At the same con- 
ference Dr. Titus/ Lowe, a high official in our church, said 
to the assembled ministers. "If you have doubts, keep 
them to yourself." If this advice had been followed by 
religious thinkers, scientists, economic and political writ- 
ers, for the past hundred years where would we be today ? 
This advice is to tell a man if a candle is flickering feebly 
in the dark to blow it out quickly for fear he may see 
something. 

Intolerance inside the church is to-day the worst 
foe of the church. To bind the brain and gag the mouth 
is to render static the intellectual life of our ministry. It 
prevents the church from attacking modern problems 
with modern tools. 



AS A PREACHER 



41 



Old school men are always taunting new school men 
to pick up and leave the church if they do not like it. 
They confuse the identity of the church with the identity 
of their own group. Dr. Stratton of New York was re- 
ported in the papers last summer as serving notice that 
he and the rest of the Fundamentalists proposed to drive 
out of the Baptist church Professor Shatter Matthews, Dr. 
Fosdick, and other progressives whom he named. New 
school men are perfectly willing to have the old school 
men remain in the church. This is natural since they 
owe their views to freedom. 

Tolerance is the great need of religion to-day. It acts 
as a solvent of differences of opinion, permitting brotherly 
co-operation on the great common ground of non-contro- 
versial church activities, and it makes possible gradual 
progress in religion to keep pace with the gradual progress 
of man. 

Fourth: Crowning all other thoughts in my mind 
is optimism for the future of progressive Christianity. I 
insist that the evidence is clear that the action of Bishop 
Stuntz and the Methodist conference in Nebraska is a 
local affair. Some other bishops might have done the 
same thing. I know that many would not. I am defend- 
ing the Methodist church at large against unwarranted 
assumptions from this particular incident. I know the 
Methodist church better than any other church and that 
is why perhaps I feel that the field for progressive Chris- 
tianity to-day in the Methodist church offers great op- 
portunities. My knowledge of the attitude of Methodist 
theological seminaries, my knowledge of the writings of 
leading Methodist pastors and professors, my knowledge 
of the views of many Methodist bishops, make me a firm 
believer in the present program and ultimate success of 
the new school of thought in the Methodist church. I 



42 



APPENDIX 



firmly believe that the hope of the church and of a world 
restless and disorganized by war lies in the modern view 
of the nature and function of religion. 

J. D. M. BUCKNER. 

Aurora, Nebraska, 
September, 1922. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX 



45 



(Copy) 

RABBI JACOB SINGER 
Temple B'Nai Jeshurun 
Lincoln, Nebraska 

September 10th, '22. 

Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, 
Aurora, Nebraska. 

Dear Sir: — 

I have read your remarks relative to the Bible with 
keen interest and delight. Needless to say that I am in 
agreement with you in the position you have taken, that 
a reverent attitude toward the Bible does not lie in the 
position taken by obscurantists in all churches. The ethi- 
cal crudities of the early Biblical portions, land the patent 
contradictions have repeled many a fine soul from the re- 
ligious organizations of our day. Amos did not agree with 
the priests of Bethal, nor did the author of the Book of 
Job accept the theology of his censors. 

I cannot follow the issue from the standpoint of one 
affiliated with your denomination; but I feel that more 
is involved than a controversy over doctrine. Many stay 
out of God's work because they cannot surrender their 
intellectual honesty. Weaker souls, I fear, are compelled 
either by necessity or sheer inertia, to compromise with 
their conscience. Reactionary theologians unwittingly 
are placing ;a premium on dishonesty. Your fine stand is 
a source of pride and encouragement to many who be- 
lieve with you that "God is nigh unto all who call upon 
Him in truth." 



46 



APPENDIX 



With best wishes for the vindication of yourself and 
for the high ideal by which you are actuated, 
Respectfully yours, 

(Signed) Jacob Singer. 

P. S. In reading your statement I recalled Mr. Monte- 
fiore's opinion. "The Bible", he says, "is a spiritual gold 
mine. But not everything in a gold mine is gold." 



(Copy) 

NEBRASKA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 
University Place, Nebraska 
Department of Philosophy 
Benjamin D. Scott 

September 11, 1922. 

My dear Dr. Buckner. 

I can not refrain from writing you at least a line of 
appreciation at this time when a good many men in Ne- 
braska Methodism appear to be singularly short in the 
matter of appreciating the splendid service which you 
have rendered the church and the Kingdom in this state 
for so many years. It seemed to me quite impossible that 
the conference could take in your case the course which 
was taken. I sincerely regret that I was not able to be 
present at the session, for, though my voice would prob- 
ably have availed not at all, I should most certainly have 
raised it in protest against what I consider an inhuman 
outrage. 

I have read with very great satisfaction the loyal 
resolution which the offical board of the Aurora church 
prepared and addressed to the conference. I congratulate 
you heartily upon having won such staunch friends and 



APPENDIX 



47 



champions among the men with whom you have labored 
for so many years. I most sincerely hope that the mat- 
ter of your retirement may not rest as it now stands, 
but that the case may be reconsidered speedily. Nothing 
short of your early reinstatement and appointment to a 
responsible charge in the conference could clear official 
Nebraska Methodism, in my allowance, of guilt for having 
inflicted an exceedingly grave injustice upon one of the 
most stalwart and consecrated men in her ministry. 
Very cordially yours, 

(Signed) Benjamin D. Scott. 
P. S. You are privileged to make of 
this letter any use which you may care 
to make of it. 

B.D. S. 



(Copy) 

NEBRASKA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY 
University Place 
Nebraska 

Rural Leadership 
W. L. Ruyle 

September 12, 1922. 

Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, 
Aurora, Neb. 

My dear Dr. Buckner: 

I did not get to see you after the steam roller did 
its work. If you were where you could see you may have 
seen my hand among what the Bishop said were "three in 
the opposition". I am not writing this to console you for 
when a man is right he does not need consoling. Rather 



48 



APPENDIX 



I am writing to console myself. I have boiled for three 
days and my fever is still rising. I want to say that I 
feel like a boob for not standing up and demanding that 
the committee state the cause for their recommendation. 

At any rate the fight is on and knowing you as I do 
I do not expect to see you sit down and see the parade go 
by, or rather over you. As far as I have been able to 
'gather from what I have read from your pen and what I 
have heard from your lips you and I agree with the fad- 
ing thinkers of our church. Garrett, Boston, Drew, and 
Illif all teach men to look forward rather than backward 
and that is the way I want to be looking as long as there 
are any looks left in me. I am hoping that you STICK. 

Sincerely yours, 

(Signed) W. L. RUYLE. 



(Copy) 

ILLINOIS COLLEGE 
Jacksonville, Illinois 

September 10, 1922. 

My dear Mr. Buckner : 

I have seen a notice or two in the Chicago Tribune 
of your flurry with the powers in Nebraska. I know lit- 
tle of what has been going on, none of the details of the 
late years, but I have long known of your forward and 
intelligent attitude and your elf orts to keep in the vicinity 
of truth, even hard truth. My dear friend Smith, a few 
years ago, told me something of your work at Aurora 
and spoke in warmest admination of you and the work 
you were doing there. I recall too that you were for a 
year my superior as a young minister in Wesleyan and 



APPENDIX 



49 



the feeling I had about you, the confidence, and the re- 
spect which no other superintendent ever had. I have 
long since dropped all conference relations but I think 
possibly something else might have been the sequel if I 
had men of your character as guides, although I know 
that teaching and not preaching is my work. 

Please accept my warmest regards which your fight 
gives me opportunity of expressing. You cannot have 
fought fruitlessly. But it raises interesting problems and 
I hope some day I may have an opportunity of talking 
with you. 

Best wishes, 

Cordially yours, 

(Sgd.) R. F. Swift. 



(Copy) 

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA 
Lincoln 

June 22-22 

Mr. J. D. M. Buckner, 
Aurora, Nebr. 

Dear Sir and Brother: 

I was so very much pleased and encouraged by your 
communication to the last Sunday's Journal that I must 
tell you about it. 

Your ideas of God and his justice and mercy are ex- 
actly as I have believed and advocated for the last dozen 
years. 

All these years I have attended S. S. at the Elm 
Park M. E. Church and have been all but cast out for be- 
ing unorthodox, I had never met any one in full sympathy 



50 



APPENDIX 



with myself so you can readily see how glad I was to 
find my old friend Buckner on the right side with me. 

There may be many more M. E. Ministers that be- 
lieve as you do but you are the first within my horizon 
that has had sufficient courage to speak out. 

I want to thank you and join with you in the great 
truth, God is good and never evil. 

Hope to read more from you. 

With best wishes, 

J. K. Litton, 
829 So. 27, Lincoln 



(Copy) 

O'Neill, Nebr. 
Sept. 13-22. 

J. D. M. Buckner, 

Aurora, Nebr. 
Dear Sir : 

I do not know what belief you held which caused the 
action the Conference took, but my hat is off to any man 
that will gain the respect and confidence of his people as 
3^ou have done in the eleven years of your residence in 
Aurora. 

If by entertaining the views you hold will do the same 
for all Methodist ministers, and bring to their people the 
same confidence in them as you have inspired in your 
people, I would suggest for the good of humanity that 
all preachers of Methodism adopt the same views as you. 
I am with you and with every man that sees the needs 
of men rather than church creed. 

Yours 

(Signed) Geo. Bressler* 



APPENDIX 



61 



(In Camp Coeur d 'Alem Forest) 

Prichard, Ida., Sept. 9, 1922. 

Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, 

Aurora, Nebr. 
Dear Sir: 

To my way of thinking you have done a very noble 
thing in speaking your convictions so frankly regarding 
the orthodox beliefs. I am a firm believer in Christian- 
ity, was brought up in the orthodox faith, but even as 
child I could not believe those absurd things to which 
ou referred. My experience is that most people I meet 
in different walks of life believe sincerely in Christ and 
His teachings, but they will not go to church for many 
reasons, one of the main being that the church tries to 
make them believe old and new testaments alike. 

What a golden harvest the church of today would 
reap if they, the clergy, could formulate a faith based 
~n Christ's teachings and accept scientific facts regard- 
ing the origin of our planet; at least what we know for 
certain of its geologic history. All men are religious at 
heart. Yours sincerely, 

Yale '08. J. A. Larson. 



The) Suppression of Doubts 
Omaha, Sept. 10.— To the Editor of the World- 
Herald: Titus Lowe, D. D., looking down from his dizzy 
height of a $7,500 job, plus expenses and free entertain- 
ment, says that he "has doubts— but don't preach them." 
The Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, no D. D., and minus a $7,500 
soft job who pays his own expenses and entertainment, 
frankly admits that he sincerely doubts any idea which 
represents the Deity as other than a sympathetic, loving 



52 



APPENDIX 



Being and isn't going to back up for anybody. Thank 
God for such men as Buckner, no D. D. 

They are going to "examine" into the orthodoxy of 
Buckner, but who is going to examine the orthodoxy of 
the examiners? I don't know much about churchology 
and care less, but when I go to church I want to feel that 
the preacher is giving me full measure of his convictions, 
including "doubts". Perhaps before this gets into print, 
Buckner may be fired from the Methodist conference, but 
he will remain in the respect of those who value truth 
and are not afraid to express it, D. D.'s and fat jobs not- 
withstanding to the contrary. F. G. Langley. 

[I do not accept the philosophy of Dr. Titus Lowe: "I 
have doubts but I do not preach them". Doubts and be- 
liefs are so closely woven together that you cannot sep- 
arate them. Men need light. They want to know if their 
pastor believes certain things which other men doubt. 
I received several letters about this declaration of Dr. 
Lowe. I am certain he had no reference to me or my 
case which was pending but it was an expression of his 
policy of life which I can not admire and against which 
I want to enter my protest. — J. D. M. B.] 



PAISLEY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH 
Alfred A. Wood, Ph. D., Pastor 

Unadilla, Nebraska, Sept. 20, 1922. 
Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, D. D. 

Aurora, Nebr. 
My dear Mr. Buckner: 

I cannot refrain from extending to you my hearty con- 
gratulations. Instead of pitying you, I envy you your 
position. Could you have served the Aurora church as 



APPENDIX 



53 



pastor to the end of your days, your personal influence, 
and the cause of truth and free thinking would have af- 
fected a very limited circle, compared to the same as a 
result of the action of your Conference. Today the name 
of Dr. Buckner, and that for which he stands is known 
and discussed in thousands of homes and public gather- 
ings throughout the length and breadth of our country. 

Were you discredited by your church, who know you 
so intimately, with so many years of exceptional service 
among them, charged with some immoral, or other un- 
christian act, it would be vastly different. But with 
those wonderful resolutions passed by your church, and 
following the statement at the conference, which I read : 
"There are no charges against Brother Buckner," that 
they should vote to debar you from, or at least refuse 
you a pulpit in the Nebraska Conference, is certainly 
a very unusual thing. I doubt very much if there is any- 
thing in the Methodist Discipline, or Methodist law, that 
can deny a Methodist minister of proven efficiency, and 
under no charges whatever, a pulpit. I write this as 
one having ten years of experience as a Methodist minis- 
ter, and a careful reader of "Merrill's Methodist Law". 

You certainly did the right thing in advising your 
people to be loyal to the church, as these independent 
organizations in a community never result in advancing 
the cause of Christ. 

As to a "job". You certainly need have no cause 
of anxiety along that line with the multitude of vacant 
churches, and even as a lecturer, with all your free ad- 
vertising, people would be glad to hear this "Dr. Buck- 
ner" of whom they have read so much. After all, what is 
it all about? So far as I can learn, you claim that God, 
whose name and character is love (according to the New 
Testament), "cannot contradict Himself". That is, He 



54 



APPENDIX 



cannot be the author of deeds fundamentally unrighteous, 
wicked and criminal, but rather, as you say, these state- 
ments simply renect the conceptions of God, by the writer 
at that time. Why, this is no new theology! This has 
been the accepted belief of all broad minded men, in and 
out of the pulpit for many years. The historical study 
of the Bible has revealed this fact long ago. Had the 
Methodist church "retired" every Methodist minister who 
holds this view, what an exodus there would be from her 
ranks. While I do not believe you are the kind of man 
who seeks to play the "wounded hero" act, or the mar- 
tyr's role, simply in the interest of truth and justice, I 
do not think you ought to leave the matter where the 
conference left it. At present, the public, at least very 
many, will believe that you have been cast out of the 
ranks of Methodist ministers as unfit to occupy a pulpit 
in their conference. The issue should be sharply drawn, 
and be published, that the public be not deceived. "Preach 
the Methodist doctrine." 

What is the Methodist Doctrine ? Is one of her doc- 
trines the literal historic accuracy of every statement in 
the Bible, especially the Old Testament? If so, let it be 
known. 

Just to identify myself, I will say that I am a grad- 
uate of Oberlin College, a graduate of the Boston Univer- 
sity School of Theology under the teaching of that great 
Hebrew scholar, Professor Mitchell, class '88, with four 
years Ph. D. course in the University of Chicago. 

With best wishes, 

A. A. Wood. 



APPENDIX 



55 



Hastings, Nebr., Sept. 13, 1922. 

Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, 
Aurora, Nebr. 

Dear Sir : 

I have been much interested in you since I first saw 
an account in the papers of your farewell sermon before 
going to Conference at Omaha, and I want to say that 
I am sure you are on the right track and it is to just such' 
men as you that the people of this day are looking for 
a better, a broader, and more progressive Christianity, 
one that people can live, and not feel that they are smoth- 
ering their better judgment in so doing. Anyway, why 
should we use the best judgment we have about every- 
thing we do, and then when it comes to religious matters, 
cast the whole thing aside and do like the Chinese used 
to do, by believing and doing only as their ancestors did 
for centuries past. 

I want to congratulate you on being a man that is 
willing to do what he thinks is right regardless of what 
he has been taught. 

I am past the half century mark myself, and I want 
to say that if we live another twenty-five years, we are 
going to see much of what such men as you are having 
the courage to start, so don't be discouraged for I am 
sure God has a great work for you. 

I have been a Methodist most of my life until a few 
years ago when I felt I could not be bound down to any 
typewritten belief that an organization might tell me I 
must believe or be lost, and have never felt the love and 
tiust in God that I have since this conclusion. I hope 
you will write many sermons for publication and hope 
I may get to read them. 



56 



APPENDIX 



Believing you have the greatest work of your life 
before you and wishing you abundant success, I am 

Faithfully yours, 

Robert L. Cook. 



Lincoln, Nebraska, Sept. 17th, 1922. 

Dr. J. D. M. Buckner, 
Aurora, Nebraska. 

My dear friend: 

I have been reading with great interest every word 
that has been printed in relation to the action of our 
conference at Cmaha, Nebraska. 

I want to confess to you that I am not at all per- 
turbed, because I believe that this action of the Nebraska 
Conference of our church may prove to mark another 
great milestone in the march of Christianity in its ef- 
forts to free itself from the slavery of doctrines and 
creeds that were written before the w r orld had been per- 
mitted to see the vision of a real Christianity. 

If the church could only come to realize that RE- 
LIGION IS A LIFE, instead of a belief in doctrines that 
have been handed down from generation to generation, 
how much better it would be, not only for the church 
but for the world. 

Dr. Buckner, the best thing that I know to say to 
you is that I believe you have laid the foundation of a 
monument to your own life that will be as enduring 
as the Rock of Ages, and I hope God will spare you until 
the shaft you may build upon that foundation shall rise 
high enough that the whole Christian world may see it 



APPENDIX 



57 



and glorify the God of Truth above the doctrines of any 
church. You are ripe in years of study and service, but 
this must not be the end of those services, but the begin- 
ning of a wider, richer field of labor. 

With the best wishes of myself and wife, I am 
Sincerely your friend, 

Otto Mutz. 



HOWARD PALMER YOUNG 
Pastor of 

METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
Woodward, Iowa 

Sept. 16, 1922. 

Dr. J. D. M. Buckner, 
Aurora, Nebr. 

Dear. Bro. Buckner : 

I have noted in the State Journal the trying times 
you are having with the powers that be. I felt moved 
to write a line to you and let you know that I firmly be- 
lieve in the justice of your contention asking for a trial. 

I have traveled the path of a complete change of 
thought from the most conservative theological position 
o a very liberal attitude of mind. I cannot help seeing 
that the church must come to this position. We are, 
however, embarrassed by a creed which is unchange- 
able — Discipline — Constitution, Art. XI, section 47. I 
have wondered how we are to ever get rid of it. 

I wish you the success you deserve in your attempt 
to secure recognition for yourself and the more liberal 
faith. Sincerely yours, 

Howard P. Young. 



58 



APPENDIX 



Sept. 14, 1922. 

Rev. J. D. M. Buckner, 

Aurora, Nebr. 
Rev. and My dear Sir: 

A dispatch from Omaha of the 9th inst. is authority 
for the statement chronicled in Sunday's papers, that the 
Nebraska M. E. Church Conference "retired" you from 
the ministry, at the age of 64, because of your belief that 
a "bad man repenting on his deathbed, had not an equal 
chance of heaven, with a man who had lived uprightly 
all his life". 

Without taking into consideration, or interfering 
with the religious convictions of anyone, the most astute 
reasoners of this day and age, cannot but agree with your 
line of thought on this subject, and it is, indeed, exceed- 
ingly regrettable that a contention of this kind should 
interfere, in the slightest degree with the standing of a 
pastor, the major part of whose life doubtless has been 
passed in preaching and it is to be hoped in living, in 
accordance with the precepts of Christ. 

Very sincerely, 

Frederick A. Johnson. 
649 West Fifteenth Street, 
Los Angeles, Calif. 



UTICA SUN 
All Kinds of Job Printing 
Beaver Crossing Times Staplehurst Sentinel 

Beaver Crossing, Nebr., Sept. 13, 1922. 

Dear Mr. Buckner : 

Words fail to express our deep sympathy for you in 
this unpardonable act of Conference. Why a body of men 



APPENDIX 



59 



in this enlightened day and age of the world could be so 
narrow in their views as to subject you to such humilia- 
tion, is beyond thinking. Your people who know you in 
all your different charges can not help but resent such 
actions. You have done so much good, and we are sure 
this will make all who have been under your teaching 
better men and women, that by their lives they can prove 
your teachings have been the best. Please know that 
our faith in you is great and we will never miss an oppor- 
tunity to sing your praise. With love from the McNeils. 

(Signed) Beaver Crossing. 



CHIPS AND WHETSTONES" 
IN NEBRASKA STATE JOURNAL 
(Sunday, September 17, 1922) 

"Congratulations 
Dear Ex-Reverend J. D. M. Buckner: 

If this world needs anything more than another it 
is men willing to be boiled in oil for conscience' sake. I 
am a good deal of a coward myself. I have lived more 
than half as* long as you and have not been burned at 
the stake as often as once. I have just wit enough to 
feel the disgrace of this. I haven't will enough to cor- 
rect the lack. 

That, I suppose is why I am so joyful over you. I am 
hoping that your tour into the ditch for something you be- 
lieve atones in some vicarious way for my weakness for 
safety first. The proof of the divinity of man that is most 
convincing to me is the willingness of one of him now and 
then to forego the flesh for some reward of the spirit. 
When I see men do that, 1 know that whatever their an- 



60 



APPENDIX 



cestry, they, or part of them, have cut the link that bound 
them to it and have embarked on a voyage celestial. 

I do not understand the theological issues involved in 
your case. I do understand that you had your version of 
the truth and spoke it out and stuck to it regardless of 
consequences to yourself. I have seen so much dodging 
and ducking like my own of late, so much trimming of 
conscience to the winds of convention, that I was begin- 
ning to fear that the last man capable of dying for an 
idea had been shot in the war. Of course you know that 
if ever that time comes, humanity is gone, metaphor- 
ically and literally, to the dogs. But your case has re- 
vived me. There are still men who would not rather 
gain the whole world than lose their own soul. 

To you, therefore, reposing triumphant in the ditch, 
I pay the congratulations and the homage which coward- 
ice ever owes to courage. That you have vindicated your 
species is the belief of your admirer." 

David G. N. 



"CONGRATULATIONS 

To the Methodist Conference: 

This must be an honest world or perish. I have been 
worried of late by certain discrepancies between people's 
professions and their practices. If I get aright the gist 
of what you did at Omaha to my beloved friend, Buckner, 
you have greatly mitigated my apprehensions. 

As I understand it, your church is committed of old 
to certain definite and specified theological notions. What 
these are is no part of the inquiry. Whether it was Jonah 
that swallowed the whale or vice versa has nothing to 
do with the case. You have written down that it is one 



APPENDIX 



way or the other; and as long as it so stands, that is the 
doctrine of your church and of its members. To be 
honest, the church must enforce that doctrine. 

Of all the institutions of the world, a church, it seems 
to me, is most obligated to be honest with itself and with 
the world. If that church makes belief in these certain 
things its test of membership and its gateway to salva- 
tion, then honesty requires no less than one thing of you. 
That thing is that everybody who doesn't believe that 
way either get out or be put out. Even if that were to 
leave your church consisting only of the Rev. Titus Lowe 
there would be no alternative. To say officially that you 
believe a thing and then act as if you do not believe it, 
that is bad enough in party politics. We can't do that in 
religion without raising a stench to heaven. 

In the case of my friend Mr. Buckner, you have 
given intention to stand by what your creed says. A wave 
of moral enthusiasm engulfs me at the sight. You are 
embarking upon a long, hard path. I am told that there 
are several persons of your denomination in Lincoln who 
dance and play cards, notwithstanding these things are 
forbidden by your church rules. I heard recently of a 
minister of your denomination who took his flock in swim- 
ming one Sunday after church. What you have done to 
Mr. Buckner means, I take it that you intend either to re- 
vise your rules against cards and dancing and Sunday 
swimming or purge yourself of these violators of those 
rules. 

Well, what more belongs on a long hard path than 
a church ? The short, easy path, as I understand it, leads 
to the place the churches exist especially to miss. You 
have girded up your loins to square your church and its 
members with its creed. You are to end this going one 
way with your mind and another with your tongue. The 



62 



APPENDIX 



process begins by putting over the transom a man whom I 
love as a father and revere as a saint. Well and good. 
What God has put asunder let no man hold together. 

You are preparing your church, I take it, to die if 
need be for its beliefs. As between my friend Buckner 
losing his professional life for his faith and your church 
preparing to risk its life for its beliefs, I am inspired as 
I hadn't supposed anything in this mussed up world could 
inspire. And so am sending you as I have already sent 
to Mr. Buckner, my congratulations and homage. With 
renewed faith that this will yet be an honest world, I am, 
yours with fresh respect, 

David G. N. 



(Editorial clipping sent me without identifying paper.) 

"There can be no eceleciastical trial of Rev. J. D. M. 
Buckner because no charges were preferred against him. 
But the conference did slip one over on him when it voted 
simply to set him aside, a successful penalizing process 
without the verbal recognition of any offense preceeding 
it. In the service more than forty years, with much to 
his credit, and little against him except his disbelief in the 
big bear story, we are inclined to think that while it is 
true, he might have kept still about it, he is no less a god- 
ly Christian man because he gave public utterance to the 
private convictions of almost everybody. At no point does 
intellectual honesty conflict with that which is vital and 
sweet and enduring in the Christian religion. 



APPENDIX 



63 



BUCKNER HAS FRIENDS IN DAVID CITY 

David City, Sept. 12 — The stand taken by the Rev. 
J. D. M. Buckner of Aurora, has been the cause of much 
comment in David City. He was once the very popular 
pastor of St. Luke's Methodist church of this city and to 
him is given the credit of putting David City dry in 1908. 
He left the pastorate here to become district superinten- 
dent. Admiration as to the stand he has taken has been 
expressed here.— Omaha World-Herald. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

014 134 623 4 J 



